So I was wondering how much of Christmas Cake's wicks were non-Japanese in usage, as the concept of women having an early "expiration date" isn't unique to Japanese culture, as much as that specific terminology may be. Then it was pointed out to me that Old Maid is the everywhere-other-than-Japan equivalent. Given that almost a quarter (more than, if you're counting the -esque trio) of my 100 Christmas Cake wicks (per Christmas Check) are from foreign-setting media, and 5 of the 45 correct Old Maid wicks are from Japanese media, there's already a usage overlap in the two. Furthermore, only a couple of the Christmas Cake entries actually referenced the term in-work or had characters fret about the specific expiration age of 25, which is where the term comes from. Most were just talking about being too old, which is simply Old Maidenhood. I encountered four pages citing both tropes that I stuck in a third category, further highlighting their redundancy.

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Christmas Cake wicks checked: 100/50

Old Maid wicks checked: 50/50

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Christmas Cake:

• Mentions cake concept in-work (3%)
• Mentions 25 (5%)
• Simply old (65%)
• Non-Japanese work (24%)
• Animesque (3%)

Old Maid:

• Correct (90%, 45/50)
  • Japanese work (10% of overall, 5/50; 11% of correct 5/45)
• Misuse (?) (4%, 2/50)
• ZCE (6%, 3/50)

Page cites both tropes

• 4 pages

As "the same but Japan" is no longer an accepted distinction, my suggestion is to merge with Old Maid and keep Christmas Cake as a redirect, as the latter has over 2.5x more wicks. If this is done, Old Maid's description could be expanded slightly to explain Christmas Cake. (Maybe you could move all the foreign wicks to Old Maid and not bother with the Japanese ones.)

1. Characters.The Alliance Alive: Married to the Job: Out of game materials remark on her Christmas Cake status.
2. Characters.Fly Me To The Moon: Kaname had once assumed that he would turn 30 without getting married and become "a wizard," the male equivalent of this trope. In reality, he's an aversion; he got married to Tsukasa as soon as it was legally possible for him to do so, much to Kaname's surprise.
3. Fanfic.A Salaryman In Nobunas Court: Katakura Kojuurou feels that she will become this... at the age of fifteen.

1. Anime.Oruchuban Ebichu: Ebichu is the talking pet hamster of a woman identified only as "Owner", "O.L.", or "Office Lady", a 25 year old, technically single woman facing Christmas Cake status.
2. Characters.B Gata H Kei: She is about 25 but still single. She once had a boyfriend, but the relationship failed after [[spoiler:he couldn't get an erection when they wanted to have sex, so she is still a virgin]].
3. Characters.Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei: A male example. His family is constantly trying to marry him off before his 25th birthday.
4. Literature.Sexiled: Tanya is 25 when her party dumps her. Ryan basically invokes this trope to justify kicking Tanya out of the party, saying that she's around the age where she should start thinking about settling down and starting a family.
5. Manga.Cats Eye: Rui fits the age part, but doesn't care in the slightest. On the other hand, Toshio and Hitomi have tried multiple times to find her a boyfriend...

1. AgeLift.Fan Works: Frostbitten Flower: It's implied that Muffy is older than her canon age of 30. She's already resigned herself to being unable to have kids of her own due to her Christmas Cake status, but it's still a sour topic nevertheless.
2. Anime.Legend Of Himiko: Implied with Fujina, since Shino calls her "old hag" and she really dislikes it.
3. Anime.One Piece Film Z: Usopp accidentally implied this trope about Robin when [[spoiler:she was deaged and he complimented on her new body "having everything in the right place again"]]. His comment wasn't well received.
4. Anime.Super Dimension Century Orguss: It's even worse for Emaan women. Their bodies start undergoing a change when seventeen years old and develop a painful fever. Then anywhere from half a year to one year later, they become barren and aren't even viewed as women anymore. Captain Shaya is already past that age, and Mimsy's pretty damn close.
5. Characters.Bishoujo Wrestler Retsuden: At age 35.
6. Characters.Eureka Seven AO: Improbable Age: Rebecka seems to be in her late twenties or early thirties at best, which is probably too young for her job.
7. Characters.Fatal Fury 2: Berserk Button: Later titles such as the Maximum Impact series (2 and Regulation A, specifically) and XIII give her a third one: do not imply that she's getting old.
8. Characters.Horizon In The Middle Of Nowhere: She's only 24 but having been recently dumped for another woman at the start of the novels, it worries her.
9. Characters.The Idolmaster Cinderella Girls 346 Pro Staff: Depending on the Artist: Chihiro's physical appearance is somewhat variable. Some media present her as a woman just out of her teens, while others aim closer to a Christmas Cake. The outfits she wears can also alter the impression of her maturity and age.
10. Characters.King Of Braves Gao Gai Gar: Her age isn't given, but she (jokingly, to Mikoto) considers the 20-year-old Gai as too young to go after.
11. Characters.My Hero Academia School Faculty And Staff: Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: She and Mt. Lady don't get along all that well. Mt. Lady tends to mock Midnight for not having a husband at 31 years old, while Midnight puts Mt. Lady on blast for being Only in It for the Money. As such, the two are constantly sparring, even though they're both heroes. [[spoiler:That said, Mt. Lady takes Midnight's death pretty hard.]]
12. Characters.Ojamajo Doremi Family And Other Adults: Doesn't come up that often, but she's clearly distressed when she mistakenly thinks her best friend Yuki has a boyfriend.
13. Characters.Pokemon Reset Bloodlines Alola Supporting Characters: She seems incapable of finding a boyfriend.
14. Characters.Princess Jellyfish: Most of them are over thirty, with the exception of 18-year-old Tsukimi.
15. Characters.Psychic Squad: Implied, as people try to set her up on dates.
16. Characters.Soulcalibur II: Not Distracted by the Sexy: It's impressive that he can hang around a hottie like Mina without at least some reaction. Especially since she's half-naked most of the time. But, as far as he's concerned, she's an "old lady" who's always poking around where she's not wanted.
17. Characters.Suikoden II: A great deal of her dialogue sounds like a come on, but she remarks that the hero is too young.
18. Characters.Triage X: She's 28
19. Characters.The Undetectable Strongest Job: She's 20, official marriageable age. This is the primary reason male adventurers swarm her, constantly trying to ask her out on dates...
20. Characters.Zombie Powder: Her alleged age of 23 and desperate attitude in general is noted by the author in her character bio.
21. DeconstructedTrope.Video Games: Persona 4: Ms. Kashiwagi, the Investigation Team's second homeroom teacher, deconstructs Sensei-chan; rather than see her immaturity and behavior as endearing, her students view her as nothing more than a pathetic Attention Whore. She also deconstructs Hot for Student as her Christmas Cake status has left her so bitter and desperate for attention from males that she is willing to settle for anyone.
22. DieForOurShip.Yu Gi Oh: Mai is also sometimes depicted as a sad old slut, usually when the pairing in question is Joey/Kaiba. Or Joey/anybody but her, really. Made even more annoying because Mai explicitly says she's got other priorities than romance - especially in the anime, where she did have the chance to marry a rich action star (a clear Captain Ersatz of Jean Claude Van Damme) but blew him off repeatedly and, when he wouldn't back down, she defeated him in a duel.
23. TheEeyore.Anime And Manga: Natsumi Bekki, the 40 year old teacher for the main characters in No Rin, acts like a Genki Girl sometimes. However, she will also bring up very private information about her personal life to them, such as being a Christmas Cake, and it often brings down the mood of the entire class.
24. Fanfic.How Eating A Strange Fruit Gave Me My Quirk: My Biological Clock Is Ticking: This, along with facing the Christmas Cake trope and her parents constant nagging for her to provide grandchildren, is the reason why Pixie-Bob is so desperate to have a boyfriend. Mandalay mentions that she and Ragdoll are in the same boat.
25. Franchise.The King Of Fighters: Bar Brawl: The Women Fighters Team's ending in XIII is a particularly catty example. At the Pao Pao Café, King, Mai, and Yuri, all smashed from their victory celebration, start bickering with each other over who's the best fighter on the team, which in turn strikes a nerve with B. Jenet, Kasumi, Malin, and Xiangfei. This leads to a free-for-all overlooked by an amused Vanessa (who muses to herself that "it's nice to be young"), the worried pair of Hotaru and Hinako, and an utterly distraught Richard.
26. Funny.My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected: My club did barbecues a lot during college. While I was tending the fire, couples were—[Beat]—crap. Now I'm in a bad mood.
27. Funny.Naruto: A drunk Shizune complains to Kurenai how jealous of her she is for having a boyfriend. She then proceeds to rant that due to her traveling she's never been able to meet any good men, and she's at risk of ending up a Christmas Cake like Tsunade... and realizing too late that Tsunade heard every word she said.
28. Funny.Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Naruto calls Mei (the age-conscious Fifth Mizukage) Née-chan and she gives him candy.
29. GoofyPrintUnderwear.Anime And Manga: When Umino flipped up Miss Haruna's skirt in Sailor Moon, it had a big smiley on it. She does have a fairly fun and childish personality to go with it. And when Haruna's panties were revealed, she was so embarrassed that she cried while claiming "Now I'll never get married!" (changed to "I'll never live this down!" in the Viz dub) This scene was one of the reasons this episode was wholly excised from the DiC English dub.
30. LightNovel.Girlish Number: Discussed between Koto and Kazuha in Episode 6. Koto is 26, and she is aware that her window to become a star is quickly closing. Had she not landed her Kuusure role she would've just returned to her hometown and gotten married.
31. Literature.Sano Ichiro: Lady Ichiteru desperately wants to be the concubine that conceives the next Shogun before she turns 30 and is forced to return to Miyako. US media, Japan setting
32. LuminescentBlush.Anime And Manga: Full Metal Panic: Of course, Sōsuke feels very embarrassed because... well, he's Bonta-kun, and he thinks she doesn't know. Another time is when Kaname dresses like a hot, older housewife, and pretends that she's having an affair with him.
33. Main.Memetic Personality Change: KanColle: Ashigara being a Christmas Cake. There's this idea that her attributes (i.e her name, her history, etc) gives off an aura of an "unmarried virgin" despite looking like she could be older than 25.
34. Main.My Beloved Smother: Warmth: Minamo's mother is upset that her nearly 30-year-old daughter hasn't found a husband yet. She patronizes Minamo as an immature Manchild because she isn't attached to anyone yet.
35. Manga.Ameagari No 10 Nenme: Male variation. Both Hanajima and Kurose are 28, [[spoiler:for Kurose's case, it's because he could never forgot about Hanajima.]]
36. Manga.Crayon Shin Chan: Miss Katz's love life eventually gets the best of her as she realizes how alone she really is. After learning how much Penny's abusive father reflects her life, she states that Penny is the only person she knows who's life sucks worse than hers. She was once forced to buy a literal family-sized Christmas Cake to keep appearances.
37. Manga.Chitose Get You: Chitose assumes Fuji-sensei is one in episode 2.
38. Manga.Gokinjo Monogatari: As usual, a female teacher. Althoug 27-year old Hama-chan-sensei doesn't seem to be very concerned.
39. Manga.Happy Mania: A josei manga that ran 1996-2003 in the magazine 'Feel Young' by Moyoco Anno about the adventures of Kayoko Shigeta, a Christmas Cake who is unlucky in love and in work.
40. Manga.Havent You Heard Im Sakamoto: Chick Magnet: Sakamoto, of course. Multiple girls try to win Sakamoto's affections throughout the series, including the mother of one of his classmates and a ghost. But Sakamoto shows no obvious interest in any of them. If anything, the only Ship Tease moments in the series are Homoerotic Subtext with another guy.
41. Manga.Life Lessons With Uramichi Oniisan: Dysfunction Junction: Nobody on Together with Maman, with the exception of Kumatani, is a functioning adult. Utano's a washed up singer who's rapidly approaching Christmas Cake mentality, Iketeru is unable to do most actions without prompting, Usahara keeps putting his own foot in his mouth, and Uramichi's an entirely different bag of stress.
42. Manga.Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch: Artistic Age: Gackt looks a bit too much like his namesake to possibly be thirteen years old. This is also true of pretty much every character in the series; Maria doesn't really look like Christmas Cake despite the many jokes at her expense, and aside from Hanon and the characters who are supposed to be small children, most of the girls are unbelievably stacked.
43. LightNovel.No Rin: Blatant Lies: Kosaku writes about "another typical day where nothing interesting happened." Then as he recalls the events of the day, some rather unusual stuff takes place, all of it involving Bekki-sensei, such as her rampage towards happy girls due to being a Christmas Cake, or stripping naked in front of her class.
44. Manga.Not Your Idol: Invoked in an unusually serious way by Miku in Volume 2:
    Miku: Pay attention. Why does a Halloween costume contest turn into a beauty pageant? Why do high school sports teams for boys have managers who are girls? Why do female idols... disappear before they turn 30?
45. Manga.Recovery Of An MMO Junkie: Not referenced by name, but Moriko states that because she's 30, she is practically an old maid. So she wonders why anyone would be interested in her, let alone two men. Koiwai jokes that he(32) and Sakurai(28) aren't exactly young, either, implying he doesn't buy into the Double Standard associated with this trope.
46. Manga.Shinji Ikari Raising Project: Misato and Ritsuko. Lampshaded when Rei has to find a single woman over thirty for a school game and grabs Ritsuko by the wrist.
47. Manga.Soul Eater: Poor Marie, and she is very anxious about her unmarried status; see Cargo Ship entry to see just how desperate she wants to be married. (Nervous Laugh)
48. Manga.Spy X Family: Yor's reason to join the family is based on this belief. The society she lives in will assume that she's committing treason before accepting that a woman might just not be married with children at the ripe old age of twenty-seven.
49. Manga.Strange Plus: In episode 2, Masamune remarks about Miwa not getting any younger and gets ass-kicked by her for it.
50. Manga.W Juliet: Likely Tsubaki Narita, one of Makoto's older sisters. She becomes a teacher at Ito's school - hence fulfilling the conditions of a Hot Librarian - to investigate Makoto's true relationship with Ito and convince him to come home and inherit the dojo.
51. Manga.Wotakoi Love Is Hard For Otaku: Graciously averted. Narumi and Hanako are 26 and 27 respectively, but they're career women, and despite Hanako being in a relationship for a decade, neither of them seems concerned about marriage.
52. Moe.Anime And Manga: D.Gray-Man: Though she's older than most examples, Miranda Lotto easily qualifies after her makeover. Her insecurity is incredibly cute.
53. MsFanservice.Video Games: Harvest Moon: Muffy from Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life is an expy of Eve and, prior to marriage, dresses in a similar red dress. She is very sweet but has deep love troubles where every man she meets cheats on her, leaves her, or thinks she's too old.
54. Music.AKB 48: Hotter and Sexier: The basis of SDN48, which is where AKB48 girls (e.g. Megumi "Meetan" Ohori) went once they turned into a Christmas Cake. However, all the members graduated from this group in February 2012 and it was disolved, but the sub-unit DiVA still follows this theme with songs and outfits more similar to K-Pop groups.
55. Persona4.Tropes O To Z: The Scrappy: In-Universe examples are the homeroom teachers for 2-2; Kinshiro Morooka (nicknamed "King Moron" by students) and Noriko Kashiwagi [[spoiler:who replaces the former after he gets murdered]]. The former is a Jerkass Sadist Teacher who is strongly implied to be bullying kids, even those from other schools, and is infamous for long, rambling lectures/insult sessions towards his students. The latter is an obnoxiously sleazy Christmas Cake who manages to gross out and disgust her students, especially with her tendency to flirt with the male ones, to the point she becomes an In-Universe Replacement Scrappy, even though everyone still thinks of King Moron as The Scrappy.
56. Recap.A Certain Scientific Railgun Ep 18 Asunaro Park: Kuroko basically calls the Dormitory Supervisor this as she tries to persuade her to accept their help. Mikoto clearly thinks Kuroko is Bullying a Dragon, but to her surprise, the appeal works.
57. Recap.Gaiking Legend Of Daiku Maryu: While hiding at an abandoned amusement park, Vice Captain Rosa starts acting strange. The crew think she's suffering from stress, and plan various ways to cheer her up.
58. Recap.The Pet Girl Of Sakurasou: Chihiro pops out, asking Sorata if he's done fixing the sign, introducing her as a 30 year-old desperately looking for a husband.
59. SailorMoon.Tropes Two: We All Live in America: In the "Princess Kaguya" manga side story, Himeko mentions being denied a place on the Luna Shuttle's team because the NASA scientists thought a young woman like her "should just get married and settle down." While in Japan such attitudes toward young women are still fairly prevalent, in the U.S., such gender attitudes were largely extinct, especially in NASA which had plenty of married and unmarried female astronauts and scientists.
60. Series.Idol X Warrior Miracle Tunes: Team Mom: Yuzuhara is Miracle2's manager and acts very motherly towards them, but she dislikes being called one, as it makes her sound old.
61. Series.Koisenu Futari: Sakuko is considered this by her family and peers.
62. ShesGotLegs.Anime And Manga: Phantom Quest Corp.: Ayaka may be getting on in her years, but she's got no reason to complain. She's a stunning redhead and still has her figure, including her legs. It's no wonder Detective Karino's been trying to hook up with her.
63. ShipperOnDeck.Anime And Manga: In Soul Eater, the otherwise strait-laced Azusa Yumi just might possibly be one of these for Marie Mjolnir / Dr. Franken Stein, judging by her rather uncharacteristic willingness to needle Marie about their past relationship.
64. Trivia.Kan Colle: Ascended Fanon: Ashigara's desperate Single Woman Seeks Good Man Christmas Cake status is also referenced by Kisaragi, after rumors of apparently another failed mixer.
65. Webcomic.A Fake Affair: Shoko is 30 years old and has given up on husband-searching because the combination of her social awkwardness and looking older makes her unattractive.

1. Characters.Girls Frontline Handguns: Adaptational Wimp: While Jill is not a combatant even in her home game, she is still a very sharp, witty, and calm person (albeit sexually frustrated). When made into a T-Doll, she seemingly loses this cool front and cowers helplessly while moving about the battlefield. Her chibi sprites also seem visibly afraid, or at the very least concerned, about the fighting going on around her. China
2. Characters.Mystic Messenger: In one conversation, the characters talk about how it'll become harder for Jaehee to find love once she gets older. However, the main character has the option to tell them they're just prejudiced for thinking her age would affect her chances for love. Korea
3. Characters.The Office UK: A Rare Male Example. David is very insecure about his age, insisting he's "in his 30s" and when Trudy points out he's nearly forty and has let himself go a bit, he lashes out at her and calls her "an embarrassment". UK
4. Characters.Star Vs The Forces Of Evil Earth: Laments not being able to get a date, which was made worse when she was turned into a troll. US
5. Characters.Thunderbirds: Supplementary material usually give her age as late twenties or early thirties.
6. Characters.Tower Of God 13 Month Series: Acts like she'd hitting 30, but wants to flirt and pretend to be 19. Her actual age is in the hundreds. Korea
7. ComicBook.Aero: Aero's mother passive-aggressively mentions that her friend's daughter, who is three years younger than Aero, just got married. China
8. Film.Amiche Da Morire: Crocetta is desperate of being still unmarried since she's already in her late thirties. Italy
9. Film.Cafe Setareh: Molook's story has undertones of this. [[spoiler: Fortunately, she has a happy ending.]] Iran
10. Heartwarming.Red Dead Redemption: Learning in the epilogue that Bonnie MacFarlane is now apparently Happily Married. Considering all the crap that happened to her over the course of the game, it's nice to find out that she was able to move on from her crush on John Marston and find someone for herself, especially since she didn't have many suitors who wanted to marry a Christmas Cake. US
11. Literature.Big Blonde: Hazel disliked being near 30 and unmarried so that issue helped her marry Herbie despite only knowing him for a few weeks.
12. Literature.Lord Peter Wimsey: Harriet, in her early thirties when she marries Peter. UK
13. Literature.Realm Of The Elderlings: Alise at the start. US
14. Memes.Arknights: 37 years old. [[labelnote:Explanation]]In the Korean fandom, Ch'en's age was accidentally mistranlated, stating she was 37 years old instead of 27. This has given rise to memes about '''[[ChristmasCake Ch'en being self conscious about her age]]'''.[[/labelnote]] China
15. NotAlwaysRight.Tropes A To F: For all that it's happening in South Africa, not Japan, the age of the submitter and the choice of words on the girl's part still come pretty close. South Africa (?)
16. Radio.The Castle: Described as "a comedy set in the filth, grime, stench and brutality of the Middle Ages, with some nice music", it is a comedy set in an uncertain period in the Middle Ages, at the castle of Sir John Woodstock, a meek and mild mannered widower who lives with his daughter Anne (who refuses all attempts to marry her off despite approaching the dreadful age of eighteen, his son Henry (who begins to speak like a Gangsta Rapper as the series goes on) and Anne's friend Charlotte, who is staying over whilst her parents are in Europe (and blatantly having affairs). UK
17. Recap.Orange Is The New Black S 01 E 03 Lesbian Request Denied: Although Piper and Larry are engaged, Piper's mother hints that the time Piper spends in prison is taking years away from her ability to be a successful wife and mother. "My mother told me my eggs are getting old." US
18. Recap.The Pacific S 1 E 08 Iwo Jima: Lena mentions that she hadn't expected to get married for a while, since she's 30+ years old. US
19. ScottPilgrim.Tropes A To C: Played straight in a bizarre fashion. In Vol. 4, Scott is sitting on a bench looking for some drink money right before he meets Lisa. Two girls walk by, one remarking that Scott is kind of cute, and the other responds, "Ew, he's like 25." US
20. Series.Gran Hotel: Most of the aristocrat women Javier meets are also adult women that apparently, no one else would marry them (except that Doña Teresa is wanting them to marry her own son). Spain
21. Series.My Lovely Sam Soon: Sam-soon is a whopping 30 years old, which apparently makes her an unrealistic marriage prospect. Korea
22. Series.Still Standing: Poor, poor Linda... US
23. Series.Strong Medicine: Dana. She's mostly okay with still being single, it's her ticking biological clock that bothers her. US
24. Theatre.A Streetcar Named Desire: Blanche is terrified of being this. US

1. Characters.Weiss Reacts Beacon Staff: Implied. She gets touchy at Yuko for mentioning her lack of a boyfriend. US; animesque
2. Characters.Va 11 Hall A: Is 27, unmarried and sexually frustrated. When randomly asked about Christmas Cakes by an interviewer, she apparently went on an hour-long rant. Venezuela; animesque
3. VaporWear.Video Games: Gaia Online: Post-Art Shift Ruby, on the other hand, clearly isn't wearing a bra under her new dress (for obvious reasons, since she now has angelic wings). This is a bit more alarming than the other examples since Ruby is A) quite stacked and B) the single mother of a young boy. US; animesque

1. Characters.Adventures In Odyssey Main Supporting Cast: While it’s never really brought up as part of her backstory, there is no mention of her being a widow or a divorcee, and the numerous places where she’s worked and the clout she has with the Missions Board suggest that she was Married to the Job before she met Jack.
2. Characters.The Cramp Twins: She is around the same age as Mr. and Mrs. Cramp and is unmarried, much to her bitterness. As shown in "Mummy Mania", it's probably a good thing though.
3. Characters.The French Dispatch: Claims that she is not one, though is called one by at least two people.
4. Characters.The League Of Gentlemen: Ross uses this against her by calling her too old and then adding Miss dismissively, thinly-veiled as an act by his role as interviewer.
5. Characters.Magi Sindria Kingdom: She's just 23 at the start of the series, but because she usually gets nervous while speaking to a man she likes, she starts confusing them with her Magi Babble; she's scared of becoming an old unmarried woman with just magic in her life. Pisti recommends her to date a male magician. Japanese
6. Characters.Princess Sarah: Never got married, as every adult in the series points out mercilessly, much to her shame. Japanese
7. Characters.A Song Of Ice And Fire House Hightower: Judging by her nickname, lack of husband, and age of her siblings, she definitely qualifies in this world.
8. ContrivedCoincidence.Literature: In L. M. Montgomery's The Materialization of Duncan McTavish, an Old Maid keeps from girls from pitying her by claiming to have a romance and to have quarreled with him. You can guess the rest from the title.
9. Creator.Yui Horie: Ms. Fanservice: She plays a lot of fanservice providers and remained one of the most popular ones to do so because her fanservicey characters are rarely-to-never above the Japanese vague threshold. Japanese
10. DarthWiki.My Beautiful Soul: Juanita, an older woman at the laundromat, is this. Subverted in that she's thoroughly proud of it, and uses every opportunity to lecture the younger women on the pointlessness of chasing after men.
11. Fanfic.Another Prisoner Another Professor: Kissing Cousins: Defied. Sirius' parents wanted him to marry his cousin Bellatrix (yes, her) because "[s]he was nearing the ripe old age of twenty-seven without any marital prospects", so much that this was apparently one of the reasons Sirius' mother tried to get a court order to make him go home. (Sirius, of course, hated this potential arrangement, and so did Bellatrix; even Regulus thought it was ridiculous until Sirius pranked him.) Thankfully, they eventually backed down.
12. Film.Airplane: Randy is worried about her age and not being married just yet.
    Randy: I'm 26 years old and I'm not married!
13. Film.Alice Through The Looking Glass: Hamish, in retribution for rejecting his proposal, plans this fate for Alice, since she would have to give up her dreams of world travel and start over as a clerk, at 22. He thinks no man in his right mind would want to marry her at such an "advanced" age.
14. Film.Its A Wonderful Life: Mary becomes one in the Georgeless universe because of how she never married.
15. Film.The Murderer Lives At Number 21: Mlle. Cuq, the old lady at the boarding house, seems oddly proud of her elderly virgin status, calling herself a "maiden" more than once.
16. Film.Sayonara: Hana-ogi says that when she gets too old to perform on stage, she will then become a tutor to the younger girls. When she discusses this fate later with Gruver, she says "do you think I want to be a lonely old woman who teaches dance?" Japan setting
17. Film.Spring Dreams: Part of Mr. Okudaira's jerkassery involves calling Yasugi an "old maid" and "spinster" because she's unmarried at the ripe old age of 30. Japanese
18. Funny.Some Jerk With A Camera: Making fun of Stephanie's feelings being trivialized.
    Jerk! As Uncle Joey: Well if you let a man marry another man, what's to stop a man from marrying two hermaphrodites and a fish? Or a triceratops from marrying an aborted fetus? From a woman from not marrying at all? Sooner or later Steph, you might just wish you did kill your sister.
19. Gold Digger.Literature: Pride and Prejudice: Charlotte Lucas marries embarrassing Mr. Collins only because it means she will be provided for. She's 27 years old (meaning she is dangerously close to being called an Old Maid) and figures marrying a clergyman who will eventually inherit a small country estate is her best, not too shabby shot, even tough part of the deal is being stuck with a ridiculous, pompous, and stupid man for life.
20. Headscratchers.Gone With The Wind: Who says Melanie was happy? Perhaps that was just her being a Proper Lady and putting on a grand gesture of politeness at welcoming Scarlett to her family? Or maybe she only grew to understand Scarlett as the years went by, and bought into her act at first? Or she knew that Scarlett loved Ashley and would be broken-hearted that he was marrying her, so she was happy that Scarlett found a husband at all rather than become an Old Maid.
21. Heartwarming.Mrs America: Eleanor, after the bomb alert clears out the gala, is approached by a Silver Fox who asks about her and she replies she is a nobody and he, to her joy and interest, replies back: "Guess I'm nobody too". After seeing Eleanor get grief from her brother for being an Old Maid and Phyllis making fun of women in her position and taking credit for the nieces and nephews Eleanor has raised, this moment felt sweet.
22. ImpoverishedPatrician.Live Action TV: El Chavo del ocho: It's implied that Doña Florinda and Doña Clotilde were from richer origins, judging by the snobbish attitude of the former and the many references to married sisters who live abroad and send her gifts to the latter...Doña Clotilde, on the other side, appears to suffer the sad destiny of the Old Maid who get stale; instead of play the "Old Spinster Aunt" role in her married siblings' homes, she preferred to live on her own.
23. Literature.Anna Karenina: Kitty's mentor and friend, who teaches her that living a good and useful life is more important than whether or not you get married.
24. Literature.The Bakers Daughter: Some newer versions make it a point that the daughter is unmarried in a way that implies this, with the further reasoning being that no man would want a woman as greedy as she is. Becomes a Double Standard when you realize she's got her greed from her father and evidently his greed didn't stop him from finding someone.
25. Literature.The Blue Castle: ...is the story of Valancy Stirling, an apparently dull, mousy, insignificant little Old Maid trapped in small-town Northern Ontario, Canada. As the book opens, Valancy wakes up on her 29th birthday morning consumed with bitterness over what has actually been a wasted, downtrodden life, dominated by her overbearing mother and multitude of equally stiff-necked, relentlessly conventional relatives.
26. Literature.Gormenghast: Avoiding becoming an Old Maid is the motivation of Irma Prunesquallor. She marries an eighty-six year old man out of desperation, meeting him after holding a party with no women invited, wherein the only invitees were hopelessly pathetic professors of the castle's school.
27. Literature.Jane Eyre: Kick The Son Of A Bitch: Because Blanche is after money and position and because she is extremely rude to Jane, Rochester's callous treatment of Blanche's hopes for marriage at the age of twenty-five are not lingered on long.
28. Literature.Mr And Mrs Darcy Mysteries: Anne de Bourgh and Miss Bates. [[spoiler:Both find happy endings and marriages]].
29. Literature.Reading Lolita In Tehran: Mahshid is hardly old, but she treated like an old maid by the conservative society surrounding her.
30. Literature.A Rose For Emily: Emily's father kept her from marrying as long as he lived, and when he died she was considered a spinster in the making. After Homer vanishes without a trace, the townspeople refer to her and treat her as an old maid. And it's clear that Emily despises the condescension of the phrase "Poor Emily."
31. Main.Madonna Whore Complex: In The Handmaid's Tale, women in Gilead are expected to be either daughters and wives (which are the most respectable position in society) or Handmaids (forced to be breeding slaves) and Jezebels (forcibly turned into pleasure slaves), both of which are reserved for "unruly", "fallen" or "rebel" women. Curiously there are classes such as the Aunts (drill sergeant nasties for Handmaids) and Marthas (domestic workers) that fit neither classification. (This may be because, particularly in the novel, the Aunts and Marthas were usually women who were unmarried, and too old to bear children (and thus too old to either get married or become Handmaids or Jezebels.)
32. Main.Ugly Guy Hot Wife: Played tragically in Eva Luna, where Nice Guy with cleft palate Riad Halabi marries a pretty girl named Zulema, who accepted him only because she was getting into an Old Maid category. Their marriage is very unhappy since she refuses to see the kindness under his deformity.
33. Music.Garfunkel And Oates:
    • Played with in "29/31." The subject of the song at 29:
    I've got so much charisma and so many options
    It's nice to always have my pick
    • That same woman at 31:
      There's nobody leeeeeeeeeeefffft
      I'm all aloooooooooooone!
34. Recap.Borgia S 1 E 11492: Back to Lucrezia, who claims she will become an Old Maid because she doesn't have anyone to arrange a marriage for her. Her mother Vannozza says her uncle Rodrigo of course will—and that she should stop hurrying to get married anyways.
35. Series.Alma Gemea:
    • Generosa is and old lady who ended up single. People occasionally tease her for it, but she doesn't seem to care much.
    • Mirna's goal is to defy this trope at all costs: she constantly tries to find a husband, and while the guys tend to like her, Crispim always gets in her way and throws her dates in the pigsty.
36. Series.Arabela: Miss Milerova, Honzik's piano teacher. She is so desperate to get married that she says she'd marry the devil if she could. She ends up doing exactly that. spinster
37. Series.Gentleman Jack: One of the clues that Ann Walker is a lesbian but just doesn't know it yet — she's twenty-nine and unmarried.
38. Series.The Nanny: Fran has a complex about getting older without husband and babies in her future; she's very insecure about it. The point that the secrecy regarding her real age is a Running Joke. Lampshaded throughout the whole series. Even the FBI was only able to get as close as thirty-one. HILARIOUSLY lampshaded when on the night before her wedding, Fran is stranded on the outskirts of the city. When she calls the police for help, he dismisses her. . .until she tells him how old she is (which the audience never hears, but realizes that she must be pretty desperate if she's revealing such carefully guarded information to a complete stranger), and he then offers to send a helicopter to get her safely home.
39. Series.Paper Girls 2022: Erin from 1988 asks her future self (31 years later) whether she's married. 2019!Erin says that's just like their mom before replying that no, she isn't (she's forty-three or so).
40. TabletopGame.Marrying Mr Darcy: If you either fail to attract any suitors or fail all your proposal rolls, you receive the Old Maid card.
    You are old. No one wants to marry you.
41. Theatre.Dancing At Lughnasa: Kate gets mocked by the townspeople for being this.
42. Theatre.Ruddigore: Dame Hannah states that she has pledged herself to an eternal maidenhood after being forced by ethical and moral considerations to stand up her love at the altar many years before.
43. Trivia.Crimson Peak: What Could Have Been: Early script drafts were going to have Edith be in her mid to late 20s, as a comment on how Edwardian women were considered an Old Maid if not married by 23, but when Jessica Chastain declined to play Edith in favor of Lucille and Mia Wasikowska was cast for the role, Del Toro reworked the script to be a Coming of Age Story for Edith, who starts off with childish ideas of love but then learns of all its horrors and complexities after she marries Thomas.
44. VisualNovel.The Eden Of Grisaia: Like JB before her, Chizuru wants to graduate from virginity, though she’s still halfheartedly holding out for a Prince Charming. Japanese
45. YMMV.The Price Is Right: Values Dissonance: Barker told at least one young woman "You better hurry up and get married," with the implication being that she'd end up an Old Maid. Even if he said it in jest (she said she was 19), this would not fly today. since it's a joke about this concept

1. Film.Sirens: Despite being married, Estella fits this quite close since there is no passion in her marriage.
2. Film.That Cold Day In The Park: Frances doesn't seem particularly old (Sandy Dennis was 31 when she played her), but she's not getting any younger, is unmarried, and extremely lonely.

1. Characters.Nineteen Eighty Three Doomsday Stories: Subverted in the future scenes, as she "ages" much slower than Austria and even Switzerland. She's described as still pretty much as she always looked, with a few slight wrinkles. no mention of marriage
2. Film.Fallen Angel 1945: Clara Mills.
3. Film.The Poseidon Adventure: Miss Kinsale. spinster

1. Awesome.Little House On The Prairie: Laura telling off Lois Beaumont, for her judgemental remarks about the teacher Miss Sarah's [chained sinkhole] love life given that the girl caused her family a scandal a year before with her behavior, it must've been also catharitc to Rose to see that. Given that she was so jealous and insecure given that Lois was taking all her friends and the attention of Paul Cooley until her Alpha Bitch behavior put them off and for that dirty trick she played on Paul that humiliated him at a pie sale.
2. Film.Psycho Wedding Crasher: Christmas Cake: Jenna might qualify as a Western example, as she has some Old Maid characteristics but is still in her 20s.
3. Film.Late Spring:
   • 27 years old is considered verging on Old Maid status in Japan, but Noriko has no real urge to get married and is content to live at home and look after her father.
   • Christmas Cake: The peculiar and more extreme Japanese variant of Old Maid, in which a woman older than 25 is thought to be past marriageable age. Shukichi and Masa are motivated to find Noriko a husband before it's too late.
4. Funny.Meet Me In St Louis: Esther says that they have to do this for Rose because "She's not getting any younger", even though she's twenty-one. When they hear Rose coming home, Katie snarks "there's the poor Old Maid now."